What you do not anticipate is the virulent Left response. The cadre is taught to sing terribly out-of-tune internationals at the party's social and political functions. They grow up with a rudimentary knowledge about the growth and spread of the ism from Europe to the rest of the world. In West Bengal, a Left Front government was sworn into governance for an eternity thirty years ago, long before the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the global meltdown of Communism. Senior comrades still consider it a privilege to go on their annual pilgrimage to Beijing and Tiananmen Square. Despite all these translational links and vestiges of a historical past, the Left functionary's sense of geography, maybe even his idea of astronomy, revolves around Kolkata.
No doubt, historians suspect that Mao Zedong was never really serious about the hundred-flower movement. In 1956, Mao had unleashed that theoretically alluring one-liner, ``Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the hundred schools of thought contend.'' The subsequent persecution of those who dared to think differently made one wonder if that great invitation to an El Dorado of philosophical openness and introspection was more about entrapment than an actual counsel on healthy debate.
At least, the DMK MPs, who formed a ring around their Shipping Minister, T.R.Baalu to prevent any physical contact with the menacingly advancing Left MPs, knew that the Communists do not believe in a hundred maritime universities blooming. The Left views on navigating the choppy waters of seafarers' education are uniquely simple and linear. Whatever self or cross-pollination of shipping institutions has to happen will have to begin and end only in Kolkata's south-western suburb of Taratala, or more precisely, within the compounds of the 53-year-old Marine Engineering Research Institute.
It is strange that Left chose to ignore the basic tenets of Parliamentary etiquette when the House was being presided over by a veteran Left MP who has a near-dogmatic approach to preservation of decorum in the House. Somnath Chatterjee admonishes even those unfortunate, who surpass the time allotted to them by a harmless and often pertinent half a minute. Left MPs have carefully interpreted any criticism of the Speaker as serious disrespect to the Chair and the institution. When they took on Baalu in the House, they gave the clear impression that Chatterjee had long deserted their ranks and was supervising proceedings in a pig-sty. That was the kind of bestiality Lenin had credited the Parliament and Parliamentarians with almost a century ago.
It is tragic that progressive Marxists have never looked beyond the blessings Bengal has traditionally enjoyed for being the seat of a colonial empire. It remains the headquarters of innumerable organizations which enjoys Central support including the Anthropological Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, Zoological Survey of India and Botanical Survey of India. A few years back, the then Railways Minister, Nitish Kumar, ran into a Bengali parochial wall when he tried to divide the Eastern Railways and locate the headquarters of the proposed East-Central Zone in Bihar. The Marxists along with their revolutionary sister, Mamata Banerjee have a fossilized opinion on easy government jobs and that explains the strength of the resistance. No wonder, even the Paleontological Society of India operates out of Kolkata.
And there have been question marks on the work culture and standards of professionalism in some of these Kolkata-based Central institutions and offices. The Botanical Survey of India has been accused in the past of proceeding at a snail's pace as it compiled a gigantic and comprehensive list of every species of Indian flora. The National Library's track record in maintaining rare books has not been above board.
It is the flight of Central patronage more than the exit of private Capital that has always troubled the Left. There will be little or no tears if the Tatas walk out of Singur. But if the union government even hints at a probable shutdown of a long dysfunctional public sector undertaking, the Communists will definitely scream blue murder. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may be the face of change but a majority of his colleagues still wear the same wrinkled mask of an obsolete, predictable socialism.
This is not to suggest that the DMK has any justification for choosing Chennai ahead of any other port city in the country for the proposed maritime university. In fact, the Kolkata MERI has acquired an enviable professional expertise which is difficult to compete with. But that hardly justifies the blatant muscle-flexing which the Left resorted to in the House. It left the Politburo members in the Rajya Sabha shame-faced and almost apologetic.
Chauvinism in any form has been criticized in classical Marxism. Mao himself loathed the manner in which the majority Han Chinese treated the other ethnic groups of the People's Republic. In 1953, he wrote, ``We must go to the root and criticize the Han chauvinist ideas which exist to a serious degree among many Party members and cadres, namely, the reactionary ideas of the landlord class and the bourgeoisie, or the ideas characteristic of the Kuomintang, which are manifested in the relations between nationalities.'' In the 1860s, Karl Marx seriously believed that once the English labour is freed from the yoke of oppression, the tricky Irish question will be solved.
In India, Marxism has been trapped in the two islands of Kerala and West Bengal. Both states have evolved as Marxist provinces and the ideology has become interwoven with regional pride and occasionally with unabashed parochialism. The Sourav Ganguly question left the Bengali Communist muddle-headed. He couldn't decide how to balance his national pride with his sub-national esteem. It was an antithesis from which there was no dialectical progression, not even escape. Ganguly helped the Communists out of that predicament by regaining his form. Only Marx knows how long the Left will keep up with this pretence of separating their ideological and regional commitments.
It's time Bengalis conceived of the red rosogolla and Malayalees painted their appams scarlet.About the AuthorDiptosh Majumdar Diptosh Majumdar is the former National Affairs Editor, CNN-IBN....Read Morefirst published:March 16, 2007, 22:27 ISTlast updated:March 16, 2007, 22:27 IST
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Chauvinism can also be defined as a volatile virtue exploited by the insecure within their ethnic territorial limits. It expresses itself through militancy and occasionally through ugly paper-snatching and distasteful skirmishes in Parliament. There is greater peril, however, with the camouflaged variety of chauvinism. You expect a regional party like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to be jingoistic to the core. You expect the DMK leadership to try out every trick in the book to set up a maritime university in Chennai.
What you do not anticipate is the virulent Left response. The cadre is taught to sing terribly out-of-tune internationals at the party's social and political functions. They grow up with a rudimentary knowledge about the growth and spread of the ism from Europe to the rest of the world. In West Bengal, a Left Front government was sworn into governance for an eternity thirty years ago, long before the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the global meltdown of Communism. Senior comrades still consider it a privilege to go on their annual pilgrimage to Beijing and Tiananmen Square. Despite all these translational links and vestiges of a historical past, the Left functionary's sense of geography, maybe even his idea of astronomy, revolves around Kolkata.
No doubt, historians suspect that Mao Zedong was never really serious about the hundred-flower movement. In 1956, Mao had unleashed that theoretically alluring one-liner, ``Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the hundred schools of thought contend.'' The subsequent persecution of those who dared to think differently made one wonder if that great invitation to an El Dorado of philosophical openness and introspection was more about entrapment than an actual counsel on healthy debate.
At least, the DMK MPs, who formed a ring around their Shipping Minister, T.R.Baalu to prevent any physical contact with the menacingly advancing Left MPs, knew that the Communists do not believe in a hundred maritime universities blooming. The Left views on navigating the choppy waters of seafarers' education are uniquely simple and linear. Whatever self or cross-pollination of shipping institutions has to happen will have to begin and end only in Kolkata's south-western suburb of Taratala, or more precisely, within the compounds of the 53-year-old Marine Engineering Research Institute.
It is strange that Left chose to ignore the basic tenets of Parliamentary etiquette when the House was being presided over by a veteran Left MP who has a near-dogmatic approach to preservation of decorum in the House. Somnath Chatterjee admonishes even those unfortunate, who surpass the time allotted to them by a harmless and often pertinent half a minute. Left MPs have carefully interpreted any criticism of the Speaker as serious disrespect to the Chair and the institution. When they took on Baalu in the House, they gave the clear impression that Chatterjee had long deserted their ranks and was supervising proceedings in a pig-sty. That was the kind of bestiality Lenin had credited the Parliament and Parliamentarians with almost a century ago.
It is tragic that progressive Marxists have never looked beyond the blessings Bengal has traditionally enjoyed for being the seat of a colonial empire. It remains the headquarters of innumerable organizations which enjoys Central support including the Anthropological Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, Zoological Survey of India and Botanical Survey of India. A few years back, the then Railways Minister, Nitish Kumar, ran into a Bengali parochial wall when he tried to divide the Eastern Railways and locate the headquarters of the proposed East-Central Zone in Bihar. The Marxists along with their revolutionary sister, Mamata Banerjee have a fossilized opinion on easy government jobs and that explains the strength of the resistance. No wonder, even the Paleontological Society of India operates out of Kolkata.
And there have been question marks on the work culture and standards of professionalism in some of these Kolkata-based Central institutions and offices. The Botanical Survey of India has been accused in the past of proceeding at a snail's pace as it compiled a gigantic and comprehensive list of every species of Indian flora. The National Library's track record in maintaining rare books has not been above board.
It is the flight of Central patronage more than the exit of private Capital that has always troubled the Left. There will be little or no tears if the Tatas walk out of Singur. But if the union government even hints at a probable shutdown of a long dysfunctional public sector undertaking, the Communists will definitely scream blue murder. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may be the face of change but a majority of his colleagues still wear the same wrinkled mask of an obsolete, predictable socialism.
This is not to suggest that the DMK has any justification for choosing Chennai ahead of any other port city in the country for the proposed maritime university. In fact, the Kolkata MERI has acquired an enviable professional expertise which is difficult to compete with. But that hardly justifies the blatant muscle-flexing which the Left resorted to in the House. It left the Politburo members in the Rajya Sabha shame-faced and almost apologetic.
Chauvinism in any form has been criticized in classical Marxism. Mao himself loathed the manner in which the majority Han Chinese treated the other ethnic groups of the People's Republic. In 1953, he wrote, ``We must go to the root and criticize the Han chauvinist ideas which exist to a serious degree among many Party members and cadres, namely, the reactionary ideas of the landlord class and the bourgeoisie, or the ideas characteristic of the Kuomintang, which are manifested in the relations between nationalities.'' In the 1860s, Karl Marx seriously believed that once the English labour is freed from the yoke of oppression, the tricky Irish question will be solved.
In India, Marxism has been trapped in the two islands of Kerala and West Bengal. Both states have evolved as Marxist provinces and the ideology has become interwoven with regional pride and occasionally with unabashed parochialism. The Sourav Ganguly question left the Bengali Communist muddle-headed. He couldn't decide how to balance his national pride with his sub-national esteem. It was an antithesis from which there was no dialectical progression, not even escape. Ganguly helped the Communists out of that predicament by regaining his form. Only Marx knows how long the Left will keep up with this pretence of separating their ideological and regional commitments.
It's time Bengalis conceived of the red rosogolla and Malayalees painted their appams scarlet.
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